Spring Break
News in Brief
Issue date: 11/8/07
- Page 1 of 1
Letter on ethics by Brody centers on conflicts of interest
Accompanying the release of the University's 2007 Statement of Ethical Standards, President William Brody attached a letter making reference to a new policy of institutional conflicts of interest. The policy states that the financial interests of the University must not compromise the integrity of research or influence decisions at Hopkins. To carry out this policy, each division is to appoint a committee that reviews high-level potential institutional conflict of interests.
A potential conflict of interest could arise, for example, when the University holds stock in a company to which it has licensed technology, and then a faculty member wants to conduct clinical research to test that technology.
In a recent high-profile case, the University learned that Student Loan Xpress had paid about $65,000 in tuition for consulting fees to the director of one of Hopkins's seven financial aid officers. The payments, made from 2002 to 2006, had never been disclosed to Hopkins, which is a violation of the University's conflict-of-interest policies.
-Lisa Dolan
Digital research center created to manage virtual scholarship
The Johns Hopkins Sherican Libraries have announced the creation of the Digital Research and Curation Center to manage and provide access to the growing digital studies done by Hopkins faculty and researchers. The DRCC builds on the digital library track record of the former Digital Knowledge Center, established in 1997.
Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of the University Libraries at Johns Hopkins, mentioned how it was crucial for the Milton S. Eisenhower Library not only to provide this aspect of digital scholarship but to make it available to researchers.
The new scholarship center is a keystone in the University's digital libraries program. The program allows both technology specialists and librarians to collaborate over many different types of academic disciplines to help researchers use the information in ways not entirely possible if in print.
The Digital Research and Curation Center is also tackling the data-intensive challenge of astronomical data sets and is working with astronomers at Hopkins and with the National Virtual Observatory, which collects databases of telescopic images from observatories to give researchers access to images of the skies. The DRCC has already started work on creating a digital archive for the NVO, which will present astronomical inquiry that were unimaginable a few years ago.
-Lisa Dolan
Nat'l. enrollment of foreign grad students up
Enrollment of foreign graduate students is up across American universities for the second year in a row.
There was a seven percent increase in foreign students doing their graduate studies in the U.S., the highest growth since 2002, according to surveys conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools.
Representatives from the council said that the growth in international student enrollment is still not enough to overcome the overall declines that were reported in 2004.
Total foreign enrollment declined for the third year in a row in 2004, following increased restrictions on visas after the September 11 attacks.
There were improvements in all fields of study this year, as only physical sciences remained stagnant (after a four percent decrease the previous year), and education decreased by just two percent (after a nine percent decline last year).
Enrollment increased for students from South Korea, India and China, the three countries that send the most students, which account for about half of all international graduate students in the U.S.
The cause of these increases is often attributed to more pointed efforts by U.S. universities to bring foreign students and to an improved visa process.
-Katlyn Torgerson
Baltimore college teachers going without pay
Teachers at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) have gone up to 10 weeks without pay over the past year, according to the City Paper.
Officials at the school claimed that it was a failure of process, not a lack of personnel.
But professors - especially those serving the schools as adjuncts - complained that they have gone without contracts or pay.
Staff members who complained to the school were met with mixed reactions.
Some claim that they were immediately paid in full.
Others claim that their concerns were met with more delay or only partial reimbursement, according to the City Paper.
Over the past three years, BCCC has experienced a staff vacancy rate of between 10 and 15 percent.
The enrollment rate at the college is projected to continue increasing (about four percent next year).
BCCC is the least expensive college in Marlyand. It is state-funded and has a budget of $40 million.
The school is currently enrolling about 22,000 students each year.
Many of those who attend the college are under-privileged minority students.
-Katlyn Torgerson
Researchers look at swimming strategies of tiny aquatic microbes
The swimming patterns of two minute, deadly microorganisms linked to the killing of fish in the Chesapeake Bay and other waters have been identified by researchers from both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.
Their study was recently published online in the Oct. 22-26 edition of Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study focused on the hunting patterns of two single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates, organisms that prey upon even tinier creatures in the water.
Their presence in waters is of concern because dinoflagellates produce toxins which can kill large numbers of fish.
The observation of the dinoflagellates was finally made possible through the use of state-of-the-art holographic microscopy, necessary because the organisms are able to swim out of view when seen under conventional microscopes. The journal article explains that the technique used to ultimately complete this research was "digital holographic microscopy," allowing researchers to capture three dimensional images.
The use of this specific imaging technology is a step forward in the application of in-line digital holographic microscopy.
The team was lead by Jian Sheng, who had performed research and developed the software utilized while working on his doctorate degree in mechanical engineering at Hopkins.
Dinoflagellates are believed to be a threat to fish in waters other than merely the Chesapeake Bay, and an understanding of their hunting patterns may allow researchers to determine new ways to prevent the fish killings associated with these toxins.
For more information on the research into the swimming strategies of aquatic microbes and the threat they pose, check out the Science section on page B6.
-Heather Barbakoff
Accompanying the release of the University's 2007 Statement of Ethical Standards, President William Brody attached a letter making reference to a new policy of institutional conflicts of interest. The policy states that the financial interests of the University must not compromise the integrity of research or influence decisions at Hopkins. To carry out this policy, each division is to appoint a committee that reviews high-level potential institutional conflict of interests.
A potential conflict of interest could arise, for example, when the University holds stock in a company to which it has licensed technology, and then a faculty member wants to conduct clinical research to test that technology.
In a recent high-profile case, the University learned that Student Loan Xpress had paid about $65,000 in tuition for consulting fees to the director of one of Hopkins's seven financial aid officers. The payments, made from 2002 to 2006, had never been disclosed to Hopkins, which is a violation of the University's conflict-of-interest policies.
-Lisa Dolan
Digital research center created to manage virtual scholarship
The Johns Hopkins Sherican Libraries have announced the creation of the Digital Research and Curation Center to manage and provide access to the growing digital studies done by Hopkins faculty and researchers. The DRCC builds on the digital library track record of the former Digital Knowledge Center, established in 1997.
Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of the University Libraries at Johns Hopkins, mentioned how it was crucial for the Milton S. Eisenhower Library not only to provide this aspect of digital scholarship but to make it available to researchers.
The new scholarship center is a keystone in the University's digital libraries program. The program allows both technology specialists and librarians to collaborate over many different types of academic disciplines to help researchers use the information in ways not entirely possible if in print.
The Digital Research and Curation Center is also tackling the data-intensive challenge of astronomical data sets and is working with astronomers at Hopkins and with the National Virtual Observatory, which collects databases of telescopic images from observatories to give researchers access to images of the skies. The DRCC has already started work on creating a digital archive for the NVO, which will present astronomical inquiry that were unimaginable a few years ago.
-Lisa Dolan
Nat'l. enrollment of foreign grad students up
Enrollment of foreign graduate students is up across American universities for the second year in a row.
There was a seven percent increase in foreign students doing their graduate studies in the U.S., the highest growth since 2002, according to surveys conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools.
Representatives from the council said that the growth in international student enrollment is still not enough to overcome the overall declines that were reported in 2004.
Total foreign enrollment declined for the third year in a row in 2004, following increased restrictions on visas after the September 11 attacks.
There were improvements in all fields of study this year, as only physical sciences remained stagnant (after a four percent decrease the previous year), and education decreased by just two percent (after a nine percent decline last year).
Enrollment increased for students from South Korea, India and China, the three countries that send the most students, which account for about half of all international graduate students in the U.S.
The cause of these increases is often attributed to more pointed efforts by U.S. universities to bring foreign students and to an improved visa process.
-Katlyn Torgerson
Baltimore college teachers going without pay
Teachers at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) have gone up to 10 weeks without pay over the past year, according to the City Paper.
Officials at the school claimed that it was a failure of process, not a lack of personnel.
But professors - especially those serving the schools as adjuncts - complained that they have gone without contracts or pay.
Staff members who complained to the school were met with mixed reactions.
Some claim that they were immediately paid in full.
Others claim that their concerns were met with more delay or only partial reimbursement, according to the City Paper.
Over the past three years, BCCC has experienced a staff vacancy rate of between 10 and 15 percent.
The enrollment rate at the college is projected to continue increasing (about four percent next year).
BCCC is the least expensive college in Marlyand. It is state-funded and has a budget of $40 million.
The school is currently enrolling about 22,000 students each year.
Many of those who attend the college are under-privileged minority students.
-Katlyn Torgerson
Researchers look at swimming strategies of tiny aquatic microbes
The swimming patterns of two minute, deadly microorganisms linked to the killing of fish in the Chesapeake Bay and other waters have been identified by researchers from both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.
Their study was recently published online in the Oct. 22-26 edition of Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study focused on the hunting patterns of two single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates, organisms that prey upon even tinier creatures in the water.
Their presence in waters is of concern because dinoflagellates produce toxins which can kill large numbers of fish.
The observation of the dinoflagellates was finally made possible through the use of state-of-the-art holographic microscopy, necessary because the organisms are able to swim out of view when seen under conventional microscopes. The journal article explains that the technique used to ultimately complete this research was "digital holographic microscopy," allowing researchers to capture three dimensional images.
The use of this specific imaging technology is a step forward in the application of in-line digital holographic microscopy.
The team was lead by Jian Sheng, who had performed research and developed the software utilized while working on his doctorate degree in mechanical engineering at Hopkins.
Dinoflagellates are believed to be a threat to fish in waters other than merely the Chesapeake Bay, and an understanding of their hunting patterns may allow researchers to determine new ways to prevent the fish killings associated with these toxins.
For more information on the research into the swimming strategies of aquatic microbes and the threat they pose, check out the Science section on page B6.
-Heather Barbakoff
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